A quake and a hurricane in one week!

I’m sure you have heard about the dramatic weather we’ve been having here on the East Coast. It all began last Tuesday when we experienced a 5.8 magnitude earthquake. The quake happened a little before 2pm when I was coming back inside from my lunch break. As I was approaching the building, I noticed three of my co-workers standing outside next to a few others from neighboring businesses. I found it strange that so many folks were standing outside in the middle of the day, until I approached and quickly realized they were all outside because we had just experienced an earthquake. “What!” I exclaimed. “Are you kidding?” Much to my disbelief, they weren’t kidding. And even more to my disbelief, I hadn’t felt a thing! (The rate at which I was walking must have been faster than the rate of the quake) Now, while I didn’t personally experience the rumbling and rocking, my coworkers inside the building surely had, and they were all a little shocked when bookcases began swaying back and forth with books almost hopping off the shelves. Thankfully, no one was hurt and no damage was to be had on our store or the books.

It was only a few days after the earthquake that mother nature decided to shake us up again with Hurricane Irene. Making its large path across the East Coast, Irene began pouring down rain early Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, the baseball book signing and exhibition that we were supposed to hold at The Bookshop in Old New Castle had to be cancelled, and it wasn’t until Sunday, after many inches of rain and very large wind gusts, that the hurricane subsided. While many businesses and homes did get flooded out, Oak Knoll and The Bookshop in Old New Castle both remained dry and damage-free. We were extremely thankful for that, and happy to see the sun again by the next day.

All this crazy weather has definitely created more chatter around the office, but we are still hoping that we get through this next week without any more weather drama. We also hope that all of our customers and fellow booksellers got as lucky as us experiencing very little negative effects. Best wishes to all for a beautiful-weather week,